Bulgarian Culture

Bulgaria has a long history of poetry and art. This was all but stamped out by the Ottomans. After five centuries of Ottoman rule, Bulgarian culture reappeared in the 19th century as writers and artists strove to reawaken national consciousness. Zahari Zograf (1810-53) painted magnificent frescos inspired by medieval Bulgarian art in monasteries. Orthodox religious chants convey the mysticism of regional fables and legends, whereas the spontaneous folk songs and dances of the villages meld classical origins with a strong Turkish influence. International interest in Bulgarian vocal music was ignited by groups such as Le Mystere des Voix Bulgaires, who have taken Bulgaria's polyphonic female choir singing to a world audience.

Public holidays, which include New Year (1 & 2 Jan), 1878 Liberation Day (3 March), Cyrillic Alphabet Day (24 May) and Christmas (25 Dec). Trifon Zarezan on 14 February is the ancient festival of the wine growers. Vines are pruned and sprinkled with wine to bring about an abundant harvest. On the 1st of March Bulgarians give one another Martenitsi - white & red tasseled threads which are worn for health and happiness at the coming of spring. On the first Sunday in June the Festival of Roses is celebrated with folk songs and dances in the towns of Kazanluk and Carlovo.

If you are invited to someone's home or choose a good traditional restaurant you'll be able to sample what's best about Bulgarian cuisine; plenty of fresh vegetables, eaten raw, roasted or stewed with meat in terra-cotta pots. Lots of garlic, onions, oil and spices. Influences of its neighbours, Turkey and Greece are also present in dishes such as 'sarmi' (stuffed vine leaves), 'moussaka' and 'baklava'. Bulgarians like their salads: a salad and rakia (Bulgarian spirit/ schnapps usually made from grapes) are the obligatory start to the meal. Be warned, this stage of the meal can be a very drawn-out process lasting up to an hour. One of the most popular salads is 'shopska salata'- chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and peppers sprinkled with 'sirene' (Bulgarian white cheese). Soups are also a very important element in the Bulgarian menu; 'bob chorba'- traditional bean soup with plenty of herbs;
'tarator'- cold yoghurt and cucumber soup. Bulgarians like their meat - mainly pork (svinsko), veal (teleshko) and chicken (pile)- grilled, fried or as a stew: 'kavarma'- meat and vegetable stew, usually served in individual pots; 'gyuvech'- stewed chunks of vegetables and lamb. The fame of Bulgarian wine speaks for itself. It is inexpensive and good. Bulgarian beers such as Astika, Zagorka and Kamenitsa are all very continental in their appeal and much cheaper than imported beers. Be wary with spirits, as there is a lot of fake stuff on the market. If it in any way tastes strange, don't drink it. By the way, the Bulgarian for cheers is 'Nazdrave!'.

Sport is an essential part of Bulgarian life. Bulgarians have excelled in football, basketball, gymnastics and tennis. Bulgaria has been put firmly on the sporting map by several leading figures. Many will recall Hristo Stoichkov leading Bulgaria to 4th place at the '94 World Cup. The performances of the Maleeva sisters must not be underestimated. Together with their mother, Yulia Berberian, Manuela, Katerina and Maggie helped to make Bulgaria one of the best nations in world tennis. With recent investment in sports facilities throughout the country, Bulgaria should continue to be a force in the sporting arena for some time to come.

A brief history of Bulgaria

In the late 7th century a branch of the Bulgars led by Khan Asparuh migrated into the northern Balkans, where they merged with the local Slavic and Thracian population to form the first Bulgarian state in 681 AD. Bulgaria was a significant European power in the 9th and the 10th century, while fighting with the Byzantine Empire for the control of the Balkans. The Bulgarian state was crushed by an assault by the Rus in 969 and completely subdued by a determined Byzantine assault under Basil II in 1018.

It was re-established in 1185 and continued to be an important power in the European south-east for two more centuries, while fighting to assert its place in the region with the Byzantine Empire, the Crusader states in Greece, as well as Hungary. By the end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottomans did not require that all Christians become Muslims, although many did so. Nevertheless there were cases of individual or mass forced islamization. Provided they paid their taxes and gave no trouble, Bulgarians were left to themselves. Non-Muslims did not serve in the Sultan's army, so the burden of conscription was lifted from the peasants. The exception to this was the "tribute of children," whereby every Christian community was required to give one son in five to be raised as a Muslim and enrolled in the corps of Janissaries (yenicheri or "new force"), an elite unit of the Ottoman army, and also some small groups of the population with specific statute, usually used for auxiliary or rear services. The Bulgarians gave some regularly paid taxes as a tithe ("jushur"), a capitation tax ("dzhizie"), a land tax ("ispench"), a levy on commerce and so on and also various group of irregularly collected taxes, products and corvees ("avariz").

Nevertheless, while the Ottomans were ascendant, there was certain overt opposition to their rule. The first revolt began during 1408 when two Bulgarian nobles, Konstantin and Frujin, liberated some regions for several years. The revolt and others which followed were put down by the Turks as they reasserted their control. But by the 18th century the rising power of Russia was making itself felt in the area. The Russians, as fellow Orthodox Slavs, could appeal to the Bulgarians in a way that the Austrians could not. The Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji of 1774 gave Russia the right to interfere in Ottoman affairs to protect the Sultan's Christian subjects. Ironically, this led the Ottomans to see the Bulgarians as potential enemies and made their situation worse.

Bulgarian national feeling began to revive in the early 19th century under the influence of western ideas such as liberalism and nationalism, which trickled into the country after the French revolution, mostly via Greece. The Greek revolt against the Ottomans which began in 1820, also influenced the small Bulgarian educated class. Another source of the Bulgarian national revival was the Romantic nationalist vision of a people sharing oral traditions and practices. These ideas were stimulated by the work of Johann Gottfried Herder in particular, and were reinforced by Russian Slavophiles and the model Serbian nationalism under the stimulus of scholar-publicists such as Vuk Karadzic. In Bulgaria, the scholar and newspaper editor Lyuben Karavelov played an important role in collecting and publishing oral traditions, and comparing them with the traditions of other Slavic peoples.

Seizing on this revolutionary spirit, men like Goce Delchev, Hristo Botev, Georgi Rakovski and most notably Vasil Levski, began putting in place an underground resistance movement to free all of the Bulgarian people. This culminated in the now infamous April Uprising of 1876. The uprising was crushed with cruelty by the Ottomans who brought irregular Ottoman troops (bashi-bazouks) from outside the area. Altogether some 30,000 people were massacred, the majority of them in the insurgents towns of Batak, Perushtitza and Bratzigovo in the area of Plovdiv. The "Bulgarian Horrors" as they came to be known, caused anguish throughout the western world, but especially in Russia, who declared war against the Ottomans in April 1877.

An autonomous Bulgarian principality comprsing Moesia and the region of Sofia was established in 1878 following the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78. After uniting with Eastern Rumelia in 1885, the principality was proclaimed a fully independent kingdom in 1908.

During 1912 and 1913 it became involved in the Balkan Wars, a series of conflicts with its neighbours, during which Bulgarian territory varied in size. During World War I and later World War II, Bulgaria found itself fighting on the losing side. This was due to the fact that on each occasion Germany had promised Bulgaria the territory of Macedonia. Despite that fact, Bulgaria saved the lives of its own 50,000 Jews from the Nazi death camps by refusing to comply with a 31 August 1943 resolution, which demanded their deporatation to Auschwitz. That is why Bulgaria has today the largest Jewish community in the Balkans.

Bulgaria fell within the Soviet sphere of influence after World War II and became a People's Republic in 1946. Georgi Dimitrov thus became president of Bulgaria. He was close to the Yugoslav Communist leader Tito, and believed that Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, as closely related South Slav peoples, should form a federation. This idea was not favoured by Stalin, and there have long been suspicions that Dimitrov's sudden death in July 1949 was not accidental, although this has never been proved. It coincided with Stalin's expulsion of Tito from the Cominform, and was followed by a "Titoist" witchhunt in Bulgaria. This culminated in the show trial and execution of the Deputy Prime Minister, Traicho Kostov. Power then passed to an extreme Stalinist, Vulko Chervenkov. Years of Stalinist oppression then followed under Chervenkov and his successor Todor Zhivkov, until finally communist domination ended in 1990, when Bulgaria again held multiparty elections.

Like the other post-Communist regimes in eastern Europe, Bulgaria found the transition to capitalism more painful than expected. But with the strongly pro-western Prime Minister, Simeon Sakskoburggotski (formerly Tsar Simeon II, who had left Bulgaria as a nine-year-old boy in 1946) leading the way, the future looks bright for the country. Especially as Bulgaria joined NATO on 29 March 2004 and is set to join the European Union on 1 January 2007 after signing the accession treaty on 25 April 2005.